Terms of Service & Master Service Agreement

1. The 5-Day Staging Guarantee & Onboarding Tolling

Tar Heel Web Design ("Agency", "we", "us") covenants to deliver a fully functional, mobile-optimized private staging preview of the Client's website within five (5) business days (Monday through Friday, excluding official North Carolina and federal holidays).

Tolling of 5-Day Period: The calculation of the 5-day delivery period shall commence strictly upon satisfaction of all three (3) following conditions ("Onboarding Completion"):

Receipt and clearance of the initial staging deposit ($348.50);
Receipt of Client's completed intake checklist (including business name, phone number, primary services, and service locations); and
Provision of verified administrative access or DNS management delegation for Client's existing domain.

If Client fails to provide necessary assets, photo materials, or DNS credentials, the five-day clock is automatically paused ("tolled") day-for-day until provided. If Agency fails to deliver the staging preview within five (5) business days following Onboarding Completion, Client's sole and exclusive remedy shall be an immediate 100% refund of the initial deposit.

2. Email Safe-Harbor Protocol & DNS Scope

Agency's technical work is strictly confined to website traffic routing (A and CNAME DNS records).

Preservation of MX Records: Agency guarantees that it will never alter, overwrite, or delete Client's existing Mail Exchanger (MX), SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records during deployment. Client's pre-existing email plumbing (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, GoDaddy, or third-party email) remains intact.

Exclusions & Limitations: Agency shall have no liability for: (i) pre-existing DNS configuration errors or orphaned records; (ii) registrar account suspensions resulting from Client's billing disputes with third-party domain registrars; (iii) global ISP propagation latencies beyond Agency's control; or (iv) technical outages on Client's email hosting provider. CLIENT EXPLICITLY ACKNOWLEDGES THAT AGENCY IS NOT AN EMAIL HOSTING PROVIDER.

3. $49/Month Managed Care Plan: Scope & Fair Use

The $49/month Managed Care Plan covers cloud hosting, SSL encryption certificate renewal, automated daily backups, and routine operational website updates.

Definition of "Minor Updates": Minor updates include text edits, operating hours adjustments, phone number or address changes, promotional announcements, pricing updates, and photo swaps on existing pages taking thirty (30) minutes or fewer of engineering time per request.

Sequential Queue & Fair Use: To maintain sub-24-hour response times across all NC clients, requests are processed sequentially. Client may maintain one (1) active update ticket in the queue at any time. Agency targets turnaround within 24 to 48 business hours.

Excluded Scope: Minor updates do not include full website redesigns, adding new multipage sections, custom web applications, e-commerce stores, custom databases, or logo design. Out-of-scope requests will be quoted separately.

Cancellation: Client may cancel the Care Plan at any time with thirty (30) days' written notice. Cancellation terminates managed hosting and maintenance at the conclusion of the paid monthly billing cycle.

4. Complete Ownership & Anti-Hostage Policy

Condition Precedent to Title Transfer: Full ownership of the completed, customized website files transfers to Client upon receipt of payment in full ($697 total: $348.50 deposit + $348.50 final approval balance).

Agency Framework Reservation: Agency retains ownership of its underlying automation scripts, baseline CSS frameworks, and deployment tooling. Agency grants Client a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use these assets as incorporated within Client's website.

Clean Export Handover: If Client cancels the Care Plan and all accounts are settled, Agency will provide a clean ZIP archive of Client's static website code within five (5) business days with zero transfer fees, zero hostage penalties, and zero friction.

5. 99.9% Infrastructure Uptime & Sole Remedy

Agency hosts websites on third-party global cloud infrastructure (Google Cloud Platform / Firebase / Cloudflare CDN). Agency targets 99.9% monthly uptime, excluding scheduled maintenance.

Exclusive Remedy: In the event of verified hosting downtime exceeding 0.1% in any calendar month (excluding global cloud provider upstream outages), Client's sole and exclusive remedy shall be a prorated credit toward Client's next monthly Care Plan fee. Downtime shall not entitle Client to consequential damages, lost profit claims, or contract termination penalties.

6. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY & CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WAIVER

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE NORTH CAROLINA LAW:

(A) WAIVER OF CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES: IN NO EVENT SHALL TAR HEEL WEB DESIGN, ITS OWNERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE TO CLIENT OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES—INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: LOST PROFITS, LOST CONTRACTS, LOSS OF CUSTOMER BIDS OR QUOTES, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF REPUTATION, OR LOSS OF DATA—ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE WEBSITE, DOMAIN CONFIGURATION, EMAIL ROUTING, HOSTING AVAILABILITY, OR CARE PLAN SERVICES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

(B) AGGREGATE MONETARY LIABILITY CAP: AGENCY'S TOTAL CUMULATIVE MONETARY LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE, SHALL BE STRICTLY LIMITED TO THE ACTUAL FEES PAID BY CLIENT TO AGENCY IN THE THREE (3) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR SIX HUNDRED NINETY-SEVEN DOLLARS ($697.00), WHICHEVER IS LESS.

7. Governing Law, Jurisdiction & Venue

This Agreement, and all disputes arising out of or relating to Agency's services, shall be governed by, construed, and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to conflicts of law principles.

Exclusive Venue: The parties irrevocably consent and submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction and venue of the State Courts located in Wake County, North Carolina (Raleigh).

Waiver of Jury Trial: Each party knowingly, voluntarily, and intentionally waives any right it may have to a trial by jury in respect of any litigation arising out of, under, or in connection with this Agreement.

8. Contact Information

Tar Heel Web Design
Raleigh, North Carolina 27603
Direct SMS Line: (984) 400-7574
Email: greg@tarheelwebdesign.com